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Showing posts from February, 2012

A Cake Awareness Conference and Neapolitan Cupcakes

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Last night was the Second Annual Baltimore Cake Awareness Conference. This event is intended to raise awareness of cake, its social problems, and its place in society. We hear speeches on various cake-related topics and as an added bonus, we get to EAT CAKE! Lots of it! While contemplating what I would make for this year's event, I found a recipe for making Neapolitan Cupcakes. (I don't have a link to the blog because...I lost it. But no, this was NOT my idea.) The recipe seemed easy, fun, and tasty. So...I made them. And they WERE easy, fun, and tasty! So what's in them? Neapolitan Cupcakes Yield: About 36 cupcakes Ingredients 1 box Brownie Mix (prepare batter according to package directions OR just mix with 1 can pumpkin) 1 box Strawberry Cake Mix (prepare batter according to package directions) Vanilla frosting (prepackaged, or homemade. Recipe below) Instructions Preheat oven to 350 Prepare muffin pans by lining them with cupcake papers. Place 2 Tablespoons of the

A Confession and a Dream (and French Toast, Too!)

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Anyone who knows anything about photography knows that it takes more than an expensive camera to make someone a photographer. It actually takes skill, knowledge, and a lot of creativity. And in food photography, that creativity requires the right props. As I've surfed the blogosphere, looking up recipes and seeing other people's techniques, it's become abundantly clear that before I can get those REALLY awesome, mouth-watering shots of my cooking, I'm going to need a little more equipment. I'm going to need nice dishes. I'm going to need an attractive surface on which to place the dishes that DOESN'T have my messy kitchen in the background. And I'm going to need a better memory. Because every time I go to cook something, I completely forget that I want to take pictures of the cooking process. I suddenly remembered this past Friday, and started to take pictures of my chicken preparation. Unfortunately, due to the lack of attractive dishes, the pictures

Fun with Photo-Editing

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As you may remember (or maybe not) I took a few photos after that ice storm a few weeks ago. Today I had jury duty, so I spent some time playing around with GIMP and seeing how I could improve my pictures. Mostly, I used curves to mess with the light and colors. I'm no professional, but it's a start to getting my pictures the way I want them.